What happened?

He took another step forward and saw what had created the noise.

A skull.

It had rolled over.

On the one hand, there was nothing to worry about. No immediate threat, thought Max. But then looked at another way: how many climbers had discovered this place and were unable to survive to let anyone know about it? And why exactly were they not able to survive?

Starvation?

Thirst?

Or was it something that resided deeper inside this cave?

Something that killed them?

Max took another step into the darkness.

He kept moving forward until the light from the forest outside was only a faint glimmer in the distance.

“What’s this...a...visitor?” said a voice from deeper in the darkness. “It’s been...so long...since my...last kill. Thank you...young man...please...come...closer”

* * *

Eli suddenly came to a halt.

His brothers all quickly stopped behind him.

“What the heck is that?” asked Patrick.

Eli stared at the cave. It was very strange. As far as he knew there were no caves in the endless forest. Or, at least, he’d never heard of any.

Fiery sparks flickered off of Kendrick’s fingers.

“Shall we follow him in?” asked the brother, eagerly.

Eli shook his head.

“A unique monster must live in there,” said Eli. “It’s the only explanation why there’s a cave in this forest that’s supposed to be trees for all eternity.”

“So what are you proposing?” said Patrick.

“We’ll wait here for it to kill the foolish boy. If by some miracle he survives, we’ll take him out and steal his unique monster core when he returns weakened and exhausted.”

50

As Max stepped deeper into the darkness, he began to make out the shape of the creature that was speaking to him.

The creature had glowing red eyes and a set of nightmarish teeth.

“Yes...come...closer...” said the monster.

Max wasn’t sure the exact details of what kind of monster it was, but his research at the library had led him to suspect there was some sort of shadow-based monster that lurked in the furthest outskirts of the endless forest. The information had been murky beyond that.

He would have to make his move soon.

Too bad the shadow monster didn’t waste any time.

Black shadowy projectiles shot through the darkness towards Max.

He leapt out of the way.

He was pretty sure this monster was at D-rank strength with a silver monster core at its heart. It had the power to kill Max if he wasn’t careful. In fact, it had the power to kill him even if he was careful.

The shadow projectiles smashed into the side of the cave.

Max quickly got back up to his feet.

He looked around frantically and saw that the shadow monster had disappeared.

Its face reappeared in the darkness at the other end of the cave.

Max tensed.